Thousands of alleged farmers have gathered at Haryana’s Karnal and Panipat toll plazas and are planning to advance towards Delhi to conduct a mass protest on May 26, marking the six-month anniversary of the unruly protests against the ‘revolutionary’ farm laws introduced by the central government.
According to an HT report, many farmers were not seen wearing masks or maintaining social distance in the gathering. The protest is being seen as a signalling move meant for the Modi government to dispel the notion that ‘farmers’ protest, which started at several points on Delhi borders in November last year, was dying out amid the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The farmers have been the biggest carrier of the mutated strain of the virus and their marching towards the national capital could offset the progress made in the month-long lockdown. The cases in Delhi have finally come under the 5,000 mark as hospitals and other healthcare institutions finally start to breathe easy. However, if the farmers enter the national capital, there is no denying that there would be an astronomical spurt in the cases.
This is not the first time that these alleged farmers have taken the mantle of ‘Covid-super spreaders’ in the country. As reported by TFI, under Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s nose in Punjab, 32 farmer unions agitating against the farm laws had taken out a protest against the lockdown on May 8.
The protests were taken out in Moga, Patiala, Amritsar, Ajnala, among other places in the state. Farmers, including women, took out marches in the markets and forced the shopkeepers and traders through loudspeakers to open their shops.
Read More: Farmers of Punjab lose the plot, protest against lockdown amid surging cases of Coronavirus
As reported previously by TFI, the Covid cases across Delhi and Punjab accounting for the highest number of the UK mutant variant of the virus have seemingly come from the farmers who had participated in the protests. The direct correlation between the farmers’ protest and UK mutant strain was explained by one netizen named Navroop Singh who took to Twitter to post a nuanced thread that neatly dissected how the farmers’ protests played their part in the catastrophe.
UK strain has been most reported in Delhi with figures touching 50% in latest spread. The UK strain was first found in Punjab when NRIs got the strain with 80% cases in Punjab of UK strain. How did it spread from Punjab to UK – via Farmers Protests and the relay race of Villages.
— Navroop Singh (@TheNavroopSingh) April 27, 2021
The farmers’ protests have harmed the country in every imaginable way possible. From costing millions in loss to the exchequer by holding the borders of the national capital hostage to delaying the supply of oxygen tankers to now being the prime cause of the spread of Covid-19, the farmers’ protests are in the middle of each mishap. Their march towards Delhi could breed a catastrophe of huge proportions and if the Delhi CM doesn’t rise to the occasion and keep the alleged farmers at bay, he would have failed the public of Delhi, not that he hasn’t already.